Registering for classes may never be fun, but this semester anxieties are running particularly high as malfunctions in ISIS led the University to shut down the system entirely last night.
Throughout the day, frantic students swamped the Registrar's Office with phone calls while others gathered in the library glued to computer screens, just waiting for a chance to edge their way into the system.
However, only a small fraction of the 3,000 students scheduled to register yesterday emerged successful.
While some students were greeted by messages that said the number of users had been exceeded, others were unable to gain access to ISIS at all. Around 5 p.m., administrators decided to close the site down completely.
"We don't like people to be frustrated," University Registrar Carol Stanley said. "This is not the way we would prefer things to happen."
Despite ongoing meetings, neither ITC nor the Registrar's Office has been able to determine the root cause of the problem.
"We've always found that this peak period of registration would cause a problem somewhere," said Rick Fleming, a computer systems engineer for ITC. Describing the problem as most likely "load related," he added, "the simple answer is, I don't know."
Although the first slew of students scheduled to register was not comparatively large, ITC raised the number of instantaneous users from 80 to 100 after problems were reported with the system, with little success.
According to Stanley, because ISIS will not reopen until the "problem has been identified and the solution tested," it could remain closed through Thanksgiving Break.
When it reopens, students will be released at the same time and with the same priority. Students who did manage to register will not have to reregister when ISIS reopens, Stanley said.
To fix ISIS, ITC engineers are working with analysts from Softouch Systems, the Oklahoma-based company that makes the Crossplex program used by the University. However, because they do not have enough information yet to identify the problem, Softouch has not yet performed an analysis.
"We give it high priority," said Crossplex systems analyst Wei Feng Xu, who noted that the same program is used by universities across the country. "It depends on the capacity of the computer using this product."
Both ITC and Stanley dispelled any ideas that the problem with ISIS stems from the elimination of the phone service in September, which only could accommodate 32 users at once. According to Stanley, the usage also was very low.
Meanwhile, many fourth-year students said they are worried about getting into classes they need to graduate.
"The classes I'm trying to take get filled up pretty quickly so I need them today," said David Koo, a fourth-year Commerce student who was supposed to register at 3 p.m. yesterday. After two hours of clicking the "refresh" button, he still had no luck.
Fourth-year history major Nick Hartman was not overly vexed by the delay.
"There's nothing I can do about it," Hartman said.
According to Stanley, students will be notified via e-mail about their new registration dates.
The Registrar's Office needs a whole day to make sure everyone is aware that ISIS is reopening, she said. "But I'm hoping we're not having turkey without a solution."
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